Abbas and Tufayli

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Two previous leaders of Hezbollah:

Subhi Tufayli 1989-1991
Sayyed Abbas al-Musawi 1991-1992

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Tufayli

Shiekh Subhi Al Tufayli is a former secretary-general of Hezbollah. Tufayli was an Islamist ideologue and close follower of Ayatollah Khomeini.

Al-Tufayli spent nine years studying theology in the city of al-Najaf, Iraq, where he met and was influenced by other Islamist clerics and by the teachings of the Ayatollah Khomeini. Returning to Lebanon, he joined with Abbas al-Musawi to help found the Hezbollah movement in the Beqaa Valley in 1985. Beqaa is one of Hezbollah's three main regions of support in Lebanon.

He was the spokesman for Hezbollah between 1985 and 1989, and then first Secretary-General of Hezbollah from 1989 until 1991. In 1992 he was replaced by Sheikh Abbas al-Musawi when Hezbollah decided to participate in national elections Tufaili opposed. He either quit or was expelled from Hezbollah in 1992. Tufaili is now rumored to lead the splinter group Ansar Allah, which is held responsible for attacks in Lebanon, Panama, and Argentina. He has been backed by Syria as a means of challenging Hezbollah leader Nasrallah, who has remained inflexible to Syrian demands.

Tufaili's leadership in Hezbollah

Tufaili has been a stalwart in his opposition to the existence of the state of Israel, telling one funeral audience that `we know that we will not triumph in one or even several years but have prepared for a battle of centuries,` to eliminate Israel.

In July 28 1989 elite Israeli military units abducted Sheikh Abdal-Karim Obeid, a senior Hizballah cleric and regional military commander of the Islamic Resistance, who they hoped to use to negotiate an exchange for several IDF soldiers and Western civilian hostages held by Hezbollah. Under Tufaili's militant leadership however, Hezbollah "remained adamant" in its refusal to release either "any IDF soldiers [or] any Western hostages" it held.

In 1991 or 92 Tufaili lost his job to Abbas al-Musawi. Hezbollah's hostage-taking campaign had wound down since the "Kuwait 17" bombers of the 1983 Kuwait bombings who were connected to leading Hezbollah members were now free, and Taif Agreement had essentially ended the Civil War in Lebanon. Al-Musawi was both head of the military wing and former head of the movement's "internal security apparatus in Beirut," and was thus thought better equipped to lead Hezbollah in its new primary mission of fighting Israel and ending Israel's occupation of southern Lebanon.

Tufaili's activities after leadership

Tufaili left the movement in 1992 in protest over Hezbollah's participation in the parliamentary elections and its "moderation" toward the Lebanese state. Since then he has been active in fighting Hezbollah and the Lebanese government.

In July 1997 he organized protest against government which has been called "hunger revolution". Tufeili said it is "completely unacceptable that a human being could be humiliated because of poverty or because they were in need."

His breakaway group is known as the "Revolution of the Hungry" (Thawrat al-Jiya), although his support base is largely limited to the villages of Brital and Tarayya.

He is wanted by the Lebanese government for leading a revolution against the country, but has not been arrested.

In January 1998 he attempted with his militia to occupy a Hezbollah religious school and touched off a violent confrontation with the Lebanese army. Lebanese authorities issued a warrant for Tufaili's arrest, while Lebanese army units conducted a massive sweep of the Beqaa. According to Lebanon's army statement in 1998:

"Following the decision of the military prosecutor to order the arrest of Sheikh Sobhi Tufaili and his supporters on charges of forming armed groups, endangering national security and killing soldiers and civilians, the army took control of Sheikh Tufaili's house."

In February 1998 Lebanese troops surrounded a village looking for a Tufaili after two days of clashes that left eight people dead. Tufaili and around 100 of his fighters were allowed to escape to his hometown of Britel when the head of Syrian military intelligence in Baalbeck, Col. Ali Safi, stepped in and forced advancing Lebanese army units to halt.

In April 1999, Tufaili's forces overran a Hezbollah arms depot in the village of Nabichit, near Baalbeck, seizing large numbers of machine-guns, rocket-launchers and other military equipment.

He has stated the Hassan Nasrallah implements the agenda of Ali Khamenei of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

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Al Musawi

Abbas al-Musawi (died February 16, 1992) was an influential Muslim cleric and leader of Hezbollah. He was killed by Israeli forces in 1992.

Sayyed al Musawi was born in the village of al-Nabi Shayth in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, and spent eight years studying theology in a religious school in al-Najaf, Iraq, where he was deeply influenced by the views of Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He returned to Lebanon in 1978 and in 1982 along with Subhi al-Tufayli spearheaded the formation of Hezbollah movement and militia in the Beqaa Valley, one of the three major areas of Shia population in Lebanon. From 1983-85 he is reported to have served as operational head of the Hezbollah Special Security Apparatus and from late-1985 until April 1988 was head of Hezbollah's military wing, the Islamic Resistance.

According to some reports, al-Musawi was responsible for the abduction of Lt. Col William Higgins while commander of Hezbollah's Islamic Resistance, (military wing).

By 1991 The Hezbollah had entered a new era with the end of the both the Iran–Iraq War and Lebanese Civil War, the Ta'if agreement and the release of the Kuwait 17 bombers. A new leader was thought to be needed to facilitate the release of the Western hostages held by Hezbollah and more importantly to shift Hezbollah's focus to resistance activity against Israel.

In May 1991, Hezbollah chose Musawi as its secretary-general. As a former head of both the Security Apparatus (considered the instigator of hostage taking) and the military wing of Hezbollah, Musawi was well qualified.

Musawi replaced hard-line Sheikh Subhi al-Tufayli and promised Hezbollah would "wipe out every trace of Israel in Palestine," which he called the "the cancer of the Middle East", and would "intensify its military, political and popular action in order to undermine the peace-talks."

Killing

On February 16, 1992, Israeli Apache helicopters attacked a motorcade in southern Lebanon, killing Musawi, his wife, son, and four others. Israel said the attack had been planned as an assassination attempt. In retaliation, the Islamic Jihad Organization carried out the Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires. Musawi was succeeded as secretary-general of Hezbollah by Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. [wiki]

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Hezbollah Chiefs:

1 Sheikh Ragheb Harb 1983-1989
2 Subhi Tufayli 1989-1991
3 Sayyed Abbas al-Musawi 1991-1992
4 Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah 1992-

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